Randy Credico on Fred Dicker (09/01/2017)

Supplemental document for: "Theory that Roger Stone's back channel to Wikileaks was Randy Credico", link: https://wakelet.com/wake/2d352ae9-febe-44a1-a7bb-51674a2e4bf5

Transcript of relevant portion of "Focus on the State Capitol" with host Fred Dicker, broadcast date: September 1, 2017. Excerpt goes from 24:23 to 41:57. This was the week that Randy Credico returned to London for the first time since his 2016 September visit during the presidential campaign.

File link: http://www.mediafire.com/file/gnv72mp6t7yvdx6/FSC91171.mp3

FRED DICKER
There's a good deal of cross-pollination going out there right now, involved with this show and WBAI where Randy Credico...hosts a regular show as well. I know a number of Randy's New York City followers, that station is a left-wing station, and followers of my show, this station, we're kindof conservatively oriented up here in Albany, it's fair to say, are both anxiously waiting to hear Randy who's in London, England, I believe, right now, related to Wikileaks, some of the goings on over there. Good morning, Randy. Or good afternoon, great to have you with us.

RANDY CREDICO
Yes. Well, it's still morning to me, I haven't adjusted yet. It's three thirty over here. It's great to be on the show-

DICKER
Very nice of you to call me at 5:30 this morning, thinking it was ten thirty.

CREDICO
That was- I know, [DICKER laughs] I looked at my watch, and it said ten thirty, and I called you. I mean, my phone said ten thirty. It's ten thirty there. And I called and I emailed, I kindof impulsively called you. How you doing? Good?

DICKER
Things are good. Tell us what you're doing over there and how is this- Is this connected with Julian Assange? Who you know now, who you've interviewed. What's going on?

CREDICO
Well, I- You know, I'm here in London, and I'm going to be seeing quite a few people, like the Italian writer Stefania Maurizi, from Le Repubblica, yesterday. I'm going to be seeing Craig Murray, the former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, his name has been in the news a lot, tomorrow and Sunday, in Edinburgh. The great writer and author John Pilger, film-maker, I'm gonna spend [time with] Monday. Then I'm gonna see some people, who, you know, that are _of interest_, to my radio broadcast.

DICKER
That sounds a little mysterious. Are you visiting Assange, is he still in the Ecaudorian embassy in London?

CREDICO
Yes, he's still in the Ecuadorian embassy...yeah, you know, it's by Harrods, I'm gonna have lunch at Harrods, on Monday or Tuesday. So, I'll give you a report back...and you know, I'm gallivanting around. It's really great, I'm at a place called...there's a wonderful place in London. They have five hotels. I won't tell you which one- [won't say which one he's staying at, presumably] Z Hotel, it is wonderful. It's relatively reasonable, and the people are great, and the service is great, and the rooms are so clean - people here, Fred, I gotta tell you, I got here, it took me forever. And I took the subway, the quickest time, the subway, from Manhattan, to JFK, with that tram that they have, it only took my fifty minutes.  And then I waited at the airport for five hours, and then I get to Edinburgh, I missed my flight, I had to take a later flight, and then I get to Gatwick airport, then I had to take a train in, and once I get into the city, I don't know how to- you know, I don't know my way around the subway system here, but everybody is so helpful. Everyone's- I mean, it's so- So opposite of New York City. The trains run on time, they're fast, they're clean, and everybody helps you out, they take you to the machine, they tell you how to make the transfer, it is such a great system, the tube system here. It makes New York City look like Bangladesh.

DICKER
To what extent are you seeing intense security...obviously Great Britain has been rattled by terrorist attacks, are you seeing a lot of security around?

CREDICO
Uh, you know, it's- They are so good that they- They got cameras everywhere, it's a very sophisticated system that they have here. So everything that you do on the street is recorded, and watched. You know, I've seen people with...in spots, and it's not like, blatant, you have a lot of security, but it's not blatantly visible, it's kinda sub rosa. And I really haven't been around Buckingham Palace, I haven't been around places like Big Ben's...I haven't done the tourist thing yet. I've basically been trying to recover from this long trip. And I'll be doing after this show, I'll go for a nice walk, and see some of the tourist attractions. Today's the only day I have to do that, so I'm going to spend four hours floating around...and it's, the weather's nice, I see it's sixty degrees there in London- in Albany, well, it's about seventy here, and it's clear, and it's beautiful.

DICKER
It's going to be very chilly, maybe in the high thirties tonight, in Albany. But Randy, I think a lot of people figure that you're over there, especially with the focus from the WBAI crowd, on some kind of political related, or politically related mission. What's your purpose in going over there? It's not strictly a vacation, is it?

CREDICO
Well...no. I'm-

DICKER
What are you up to?

CREDICO
You know...well, I'm just a...I'm here. I'm here in, you know, just trying to get a...you know, I've been focused on the- on the...the jam that Mr. Assange has been in, and, you know, I've spoken to a lot of people, and it's really...it's been a long day. You know, I was watching that movie last night, "The Fugitive", have you seen the movie "The Fugitive"? Of course, you have.

DICKER
Yeah, years ago.

CREDICO
With Harrison Ford. They throw everything- That, and "Shawshank Redemption", on AMC, constantly. So, I always see- I like the film. And, you know, the guy is in a trainwreck, he's been convicted of murder, en route to be executed- There's a trainwreck, he breaks out, and he is able to identify the one armed man. Everyone knows that it was the one armed man. Now, at the end of the film, he's in that car with Tommy Lee Jones, the U.S. marshal - is he going to be brought back for trial, for prison escape, for breaking away uh custody? I mean, that would be an outstanding uh charge. That he broke away. That charge on top of the murder. Now, you wouldn't think that would happen, the same thing with Mr. Assange, he has been cleared of everything in Sweden [this is a serious mis-statement of what took place]. There was never any charges, and the prosecutor dropped the case. But he's wanted here, for bail jumping related to that case. They want to send him back to Sweden. Well, he beat that charge, it wasn't a charge that- completely thrown out, but they still have a hundred ten thousand, or two hundred thousand outstanding bail on him, that he's thrown, and that's the charge. Even though he's now cleared. So it really does not make any sense that he is facing arrest if he leaves the embassy. And it's really an unjust situation. You wouldn't like that, wouldja?

DICKER
Well...I mean, as you describe it, I wouldn't. There are other overlays to it, though. That we could talk about another time. I just got an email from a listener who says, "What would Randy's reaction be, if the New York City Police Department and the Mayor's Office, wanted to put in place in New York City the level of security that you find in London? Wouldn't people like Credico be complaining that it was Big Brother's invasion of privacy?"

CREDICO
I know- I think all the cameras- Listen, they're all over the place in New York City. They found the guys that put the bombs in the trash cans- remember when, when the mayor was- the FBI had the press conference, and the governor tried to horn in on it, and he was embarrassed at his own press conference, it had nothing to do with the state of the city, related event- Remember that? When the governor came in, because he just can't get enough airtime, and made some kind of ridiculous statement? He wasn't invited to the press conference, and of course, he does that all the time. Just a regular routine of his. Show up, and if you're not invited, just have your own. If somebody shows up. So, I wouldn't like to- By the way, all of this conversation we're having Fred, goes through a metadata system, ask your listeners if they like that email they sent you to go into a metadata base in Utah, or Ford Meade. Because everything that we're saying now, on air, it all goes in a-

DICKER
I personally don't have any problem with that. Anybody who's involved in terrorism is not going to be talking on the phone, or sending emails.

CREDICO
You want other _men_ to be watching you-

DICKER
They're not watching us. Metadata and watching are two different things. They could be mined, but it's not a monitoring system. There's a difference.

CREDICO
But why should _other men_ or women, have that ability...like, they did with Trump [reference to the wiretapping of Trump Tower lie]. All this stuff with Trump-

DICKER
-the nation. That's the reason. Reason-

CREDICO
I'm not a big fan of Trump, but they're leaking all that information on him, they can do that. So- Here's the stuff, everything he says is monitored and stored, and the CIA and other...intelligence people, intelligence community, they can mine that and give it to the press. To undermine him. I'm not a fan of Trump, but that's not the way to take him down, is to is to- go and cherrypick, and give it to the Times, or the Washington Post, to embarrass him.

DICKER
Randy, I noticed a few minutes ago, you tweeted out, note of the death of yet another famous comedian from an earlier era, you want to talk about that a little bit?

CREDICO
Yeah, the late Shelley Berman. Shelley Berman, who's a very cantankerous guy, he was conservative. He and-

DICKER
There were three, late 1950s, kindof liberal oriented, along with Lenny Bruce and-

CREDICO
Liberal- He was liberal, but he got more conservative, he and Irwin Corey worked an old timers show, and they didn't get along, they hated each other. So uh-

DICKER
It was Lenny Bruce, Berman, who was the third one? Mort Sahl.

CREDICO
Mort Sahl, yes. Yeah. I knew them all. Or, no, I didn't know Lenny Bruce. I didn't know Lenny Bruce. He was tremendous. I knew Irwin Corey, he was part of that era, and I knew uh uh Mort Sahl very well. Mort Sahl was the one that got me into political humor, and he's become- He supported Alexander Haig for president, in 1988, by the way-

DICKER
-changed-

CREDICO
-he became very conservative. He went from far left to far right, or whatever you want to call it, I hate identity politics. Because you can't identify my politics. I agree with you, I agree with Michael Savage on some things, alright? So, I agree...right now, Ann Coulter is good on some things.

DICKER
You agree with Trump on some things.

CREDICO
Yeah, on some things.

DICKER
Or is that going too far?

CREDICO
Not on deportations.

DICKER
On the Second Amendment, you agree with him [Trump].

CREDICO
I don't want a war with Russia. I'm against war with Russia. Because it would be the end of life as we know it. Have you read that book by-

DICKER
Everybody's against war with Russia.

CREDICO
-Nevil Shute? There's a book by Nevil Shute, they made it into a movie-

DICKER
"On the Beach"?

CREDICO
"On the Beach".

DICKER
That is one of the most amazing movies, one of the most bloodcurdling and kindof for the zeitgeist of the 1950s, that provides you a window into the mindset of what was going on, I remember that vividly.

CREDICO
Yeah.

DICKER
-at times.

CREDICO
Nevil Shute was in the British Navy Intelligence, and he also was an engineer, he was an aeronautical engineer. He wrote about fifty or sixty novellas, and one of them is "On The Beach", the movie's great- [does what he thinks is Gregory Peck, it just sounds like a voice playing at half speed] With the great Gregory Peck. [leaves the half speed voice] Gregory Peck playing the samaritan.

DICKER
Ava Gardner. Tony Perkins.

CREDICO
Ava Gardner. Yes! They're all good in it.

DICKER
Fabulous.

CREDICO
And the book is even better. I just read the book for the first time, at the end I was crying, because-

DICKER
Had me riveted.

CREDICO
There's a nuclear attack, and nobody knows how it starts, but how it ends is, it'd be in the North obviously, and the radiation spreads, it takes five years to dissipate, goes to the South, one part of Austrlia and New Zealand, and Buenos Aires, and Montevideo, that are still living and breathing, they're gonna get the radiation. So this guy is on the last mission to see if there's any life, in a submarine. What a great vehicle that he used- And Gregory Peck, and the character that he played, and Ava Gardner, it was so well done, Fred. That was a great movie. And the book is even better. The book is, like, "The Godfather", the book, the movie's better-

DICKER
Randy, we're running out of time. Let me just tell you something. I don't know if he's still in your life or not, but Rush Limbaugh has come- has started calling Chris Cuomo "Fredo". Something that you've done. I don't know if he originated it on his own, I don't know what you think about it, but- Can you claim any-

CREDICO
I like it. Let me tell you one thing. I came up with, that the governor [Andrew Cuomo] is the Fredo of the family, and then Chris is the Fredo Jr. Okay?

DICKER
Aaahh... [doesn't seem entirely into this elaborate hierarchy]

CREDICO
So they got two Fredos in the family. And I agree with Rush. [does Rush, sounding something like Rush, something like a gold prospector that got lucky] I AGREE WITH RUSH LIMBAUGH! WE GOT FREDO CORLEONE! HAVE YOU SEEN THIS GUY ON TELEVISION! HAVE YOU SEEN THIS GUY! NOW HE'S GOT A PRIME TIME SHOW. THE GUY DOESN'T EVEN READ BOOKS. IT'S UNBELIEVABLE. [leaves behind talk show host / gold prospector] Yeah. It's unbelievable. So um I understand, Chris Cuomo is impossible to watch, you watch him and you get a double dose of Cuomo with those ads that are draining the state, [DICKER laughs] which could be used to re-build Route 81 and create some jobs up there, around the upper part of the southern tier. That money being used and misused, to me, I think is malfeasance, of the highest order. And Chris Cuomo is not going to say anything about it, and-

DICKER
I was gonna ask you, Randy, though, if you'd seen the story about Andrew Cuomo running away from the New York Post, as it tried to find out where he stands on the question of Christopher Columbus, Columbus Day, Columbus Circle, he won't provide an answer on whether or not he agrees with-

CREDICO
[does Cuomo] Wait, hold on, Fred, I'm gonna put a commission together, bipartisan commission, Fred, together, to study the likability of a Christopher Columbus Statue. That's what-

DICKER
Governor, your father already did that. And he had a whole commission to honor Christopher Columbus. What about that?

CREDICO
Well, I think it's time for me to re-study it. In a couple of years, we'll find out where I stand. I'm not doing it, Fred, because I don't make decisions unless I'm absolutely sure it will help me politically.

DICKER
Or in this case, not making a decision may help you more than making a decision. So maybe that's why you're not making a decision.

CREDICO
I think that's my decision, Fred, not to make a decision.

DICKER
Alright. I appreciate your candor.

CREDICO
Look, you don't push Fredo Corleone around like that, Fred. Okay? I want respect, I deserve respect!

DICKER
Well, they're gonna have a fine time with you. Randy Credico, over there in Great Britain. Send our best to some of your friends, if you wanna come on the show before you come back, to give people an update, we'd love to have you. [CREDICO says something inaudible] Are you going to be performing over there?

CREDICO
Basically, maybe in Scotland, with my friend Craig Murray, who's a great raconteur, Fred. And let me just say, may he rest in peace, the great Shelley Berman, I worked with him for two weeks in Las Vegas, in 1979. And, you know, it was a very difficult time for him, because his son had died, and that's all we talked about, the whole time, his routines were great, still funny, but he was crestfallen by the recent death of his son.

DICKER
Have you ever been to Edinburgh, in Scotland, by the way?

CREDICO
No no, they have a comedy festival here.

DICKER
Nice. They have a wonderful summer festival. I was there one time, it's a spectacular city. And the Edinburgh Castle is beyond belief. For people who have never seen nothing like that before.

CREDICO
You know, it's the birth of the enlightenment. The Scottish Enlightenment. I'm reading- uh- Thomas whatshisname Carlyle's "French Revolution" book. He did a- You know the person you always talk about, the utilitarian. What's his name.

DICKER
Thomas Bentham. [he means Jeremy Bentham]

CREDICO
The other one, the one you talk about a lot...you know, the writer from Scotland. What's his name?

DICKER
Oh, you mean, "Wealth of Nations". Adam Smith?

CREDICO
No no, the other one. There's one other one, of the same-

DICKER
Okay, well that's-

CREDICO
-mind, at any rate, he wrote a bunch of books. He wrote- He encouraged Carlyle to write a history of the French Revolution, so he [Carlyle] does it, three volume set, and guess what happens? He gives it to, Carlyle, gives it to this guy to hold onto, he's got three names [John Stuart Mill], you're always bringing him up, Fred.

DICKER
[makes noises of "have no idea who you're talking about]

CREDICO
So he gives him the book, to hold on, right? And so, the first two volumes. And what happens, his wife puts it in- Or the maid puts it in for kindling into the fireplace. So Carlyle had to re-write- What's the name of the guy? He's got three- three names. He's a utilitarian. You know, the same school as Bentham.

DICKER
[long pause] I don't know. But I'll find it. Gotta run. Randy, always good to have you with us. Be safe over there. Have a great time. And keep us posted.

CREDICO
[does Al Sharpton] I talked with the Reverend Sharpton, he'll give you twenty dollars, if you can come up with a number. [out of Sharpton] Alright.

DICKER
Great. Take care, Randy Credico. The one and only, we gotta take a break, per Gideon's instructions. We'll be right back.